Cooking with hot liquids, including oil, is a dangerous activity. Whether the cooking is for residential or commercial purposes, cooks are always at risk of burning themselves when liquids, e.g. oil, splash out of the hot cooking pan to the surrounding areas, including the cook's hands and arms.
When cooks combine multiple items in the cooking pan, hot liquids often splash onto nearby surfaces, such as other burners, shelving, counter surfaces, etc. However, when the hot liquid splashes onto the cook, the cook is burned, in some cases severely burned. Depending on the violent nature of the splashing liquid from the cooking pan, cooks may burn their hands, arms, face, stomach, and other parts of their body. Oftentimes, the burns require medical attention and leave permanent scars.
Liquids splash out of the cooking pot due to a multitude of reasons. For instance, when cooks place meat into a pan of heated oil, the oil reacts with meat, especially the water within the meat, to create a chemical reaction that sizzles and bubbles. Depending on the severity, the bubbling will splash onto the user. Another situation that puts the cook at risk is when the cook adds wine or other alcoholic beverages to a cooking pan, e.g. flambé. When the alcohol ignites, a blue tinged flame results that often expands outside the cooking surface. This puts the cook in danger of being burned.
Cooks are extremely limited in their actions when hot liquid splashes outside the cooking pan since the cook needs to maintain control of the pan. Absent an emergency, a cook will not remove his/her grip from the handle of the cooking utensil (e.g. spatula) or the handle of the cooking pan. Since the cook does not want to lose control over the cooking pan, the cook needs to protect his body from the splashing oil and heat emanating from the cooking pan.
Some cooks wear long sleeves in an effort to protect their arms from potential burns. Other cooks wear aprons to protect their stomach and chest area from burns. However, other portions of a cook's body remain at risk, such as, but not limited to, hands, face, and neck. Not to mention that typical clothing will not prevent the hot liquid from burning the user as the clothing will absorb the hot liquid and still burn the cook.
Due to the emanating heat and food items splashing out of the cooking surface or pan, the user's hands, arms, and other parts of their body are at risk for burns and injury. The use of the present invention helps prevent the user from getting burned by deflecting the heat and splashing food when the user is using the spatula. Placing the present invention on a cooking utensil, which is in close proximity to the heat source, allows the user to deflect the heat before the heat reaches the user's body.
A cook also needs flexibility to modify the protection available to them depending on the cooking hardware being used and environmental conditions where the cooking is taking place. In some circumstances, the cooking surface and surrounding space dictates the amount of room the chef has to operate. Any protection device will need to have modular and angular flexibility to accommodate the multiple hardware and environmental constraints faced by the chef.
As can be derived from the variety of devices and methods directed at protecting cooks from sustaining burns from cooking, many means have been contemplated to accomplish the desired end, i.e., long sleeves and aprons. Heretofore, tradeoffs between coverage and reliability were required. Thus, there is a long-felt need for a product to minimize hot liquids or debris from reaching the cook's body. There is a further long-felt need for a product located near the cooking pan to shield the cook from the hot debris. There is also a long-felt need for a product attached to or formed part of the cooking pan or utensil handle that the cook holds when cooking.